You knew they were bad, but you didn't know that they were THIS bad

The lame reality: What could be more excruciating than the dumbed-down, sugar-rushed, toddler-targeted nonsense detailed in the two entries on the previous page? That’s easy – the opposite extreme. Say hello to Fuzion Frenzy 2, an Xbox 360-exclusive party game so anxious to avoid the “kiddie” label that every last element of the experience has been infused with edge and danger... or at least with some out-of-touch corporate boardroom’s definition of those words.

The setting is futuristic, of course, but no more original or inspired than a random episode of Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. The characters – all four of them – are like an insecure high school clique, dressing up in as many silly gadgets and cyberpunk accessories as possible, hoping you’ll notice how cool they are. Even the manual descriptions are embarrassing: “Dub always wears headphones and is famous for listening to everything from bass-pumping mainstream to online underground podcasts.”

Then there’s the host.

Yeah. For all that older-demographic posing, however, Fuzion Frenzy 2 is just as stupidly simplistic as any other party game. While the activities may sound hardcore (Robot deathmatch! Anti-grav basketball! Outer space skydiving!), they all boil down to the usual button mashing. The only shock here is that the title has a “2” at the end.